Feel-Good TV

A friend forwarded the following yesterday:

http://www.linktv.org/programming/programDescription.php4?code=who_islam

I guess it caught me in a cynical mood, because I replied to him with a "Feel-Good TV, huh?". When he challenged that, I explained my reason for calling it that:

This seems like something that will salve the ego of American Muslims by having them feel "See! Our religion is so nice and peaceful--we are just misunderstood." and the ego of "civilized viewers" by having them feel: "See! We are so nice, we are not demonizing Islam, we are making serious efforts to understand it..." I hope I am wrong, but I really don't see this starting the kind of conversation that is so necessary today.

However, the same friend did, later in the day forward the following--which seems like it is something that provokes some questions:

http://www.matmedia.org/films.htm

But then, like I said, maybe the first one caught me in an odd mood—it does have a wonderful line-up of speakers; one that promises an interesting discussion, especially for the wonk. As my friend pointed out, the comparing and contrasting of fatwas with a person like Shaikh Hamza Yusuf participating should be brain-candy, no doubt.